Thoughtleadership for Successful
CRM and Sales Process

Posts Tagged as‘performance’

Do you really believe that what you sell will benefit your clients? Do you see each new closed deal as a win-win for your organization and your client’s organization, or just another commission check?

I recently finished reading a wonderful book covering all the in’s and out’s of the financial collapse of 2008 (remember that one?) called All the Devils Are Here. It provides a very thorough look into the events, people and industries that led to the great collapse that we are still feeling today.

The subpar ethics of subprime mortgages

When the book began explaining the sales cultures inside some of the subprime mortgage companies and their predatory lending operations, it made me realize the true ethical importance of believing in what we sell.

For those who aren’t familiar with subprime mortgages, they were the mortgages that required little to no qualifications for obtaining a home loan. These loans were more or less at the heart of what led to the eventual collapse of the industry in 2008, as most of these people could never afford to pay back the home loans they were signing off on. The subprime industry got so ludicrous at the peak of the housing bubble that many of these loans didn’t require any proof of income whatsoever. But because of how the industry was set up, the more of these subprime mortgages lenders could get home-buyers to sign off on, the more money they made. When detailing the sales practices at Ameriquest, one of the major subprime lenders, McLean and Nocera write:

“Loan officers were required to make a certain number of outbound calls each day – a hundred fifty, says [former Ameriquest employee] Bob – and there were ‘power hours’ for cold calling. Managers were ‘brutal to those who weren’t closing loans,’ recalls another former employee. Firms took anyone – ‘car wash guys, let alone car salesmen,’ laughs Bob. Executives said they hired young, inexperienced people to keep costs down, though former loan officers say the real reason was that inexperienced loan officers were less likely to realize that ‘they were screwing people over,’ as one of them put it.”

The most frustrating thing about this whole story is that, these inexperienced loan officers were making a fortune at the height of the housing bubble, more in one month than many of us could dream making in a year. And they did it, as the former employee stated, “by screwing people over.”

Selfish salespeople

While I understand that the Ameriquest example is a bit of an extreme case, I’m sure there are plenty of sales professionals out there that are selling products they half-heartedly believe in just to get that latest commission check. There are few things more dangerous than a selfish salesman selling crap products they don’t truly believe in. Salespeople owe it to themselves to look beyond the commission checks and take a good hard look at the value of what they are selling.

In today’s economy where each dollar spent by an organization demands careful review, buyers are getting much smarter and better at sniffing out a selfish salesperson. And rightfully so, in many cases, their organization depends on them to do so! Buying the wrong product can cost an organization, and for a buyer to make the excuse that they were “swindled by a savvy salesman” could cost him their job.

Believe in what you’re selling! While this may seem so obvious that it is rarely mentioned, I believe it is a critically important component to finding success in sales. It will also help you see your professional work in a positive light. If you don’t truly love and believe in what you’re selling, at best you are lying to your clients. And all the sales tips, techniques, tactics and strategies in the world can only make lying so effective.

Do you ever feel like there aren't enough hours in the day? Do you think that you have your day planned out when a sudden and unexpected change disrupts your entire schedule? It could be an emergency meeting that was not planned or a coworker that is out of the office unexpectedly. What can you do to keep organized and productive?

Every day I come to work, I sit down and look at what I need to accomplish. While at times this can be overwhelming, if you organize yourself you will find you are able to be more productive and even multitask with much more efficiency. Through these basic steps you will notice a greater flow in your day that will reflect in your output at work. These steps can also help in your personal daily life as well.

Prioritize:Always make a list either mental or written with the top handful of most important things you want to accomplish during the day. Prioritizing the top contenders for the day can help keep you focused and on track. Check them off as you complete them. This gives you a feeling of accomplishment and keeps your day moving along. Also, keep a list with all other tasks to be completed. Give yourself reminders of upcoming deadlines and meetings you may have and check this regularly.

Simplify and Organize: Everything has a place and should be easily accessible. Keep folders both at your desk and on your computer that clearly state its content. Sometimes color coding can help you organize what needs immediate attention. Divide your tasks throughout the day week and month so that you have a clear idea of what to expect as the month progresses.

Time Management: Managing your time is imperative. Always make extra time in your day for unexpected projects or mistakes that may arise. When you make your list give yourself reasonable time frames to accomplish each task. Better to leave extra time for if an issue may occur. Take your larger tasks and break them down into more manageable size tasks.

Stay Focused: It is always important to stay focused on what you are trying to accomplish. If you become overwhelmed by a project or job, step away from the desk and take a deep breath. Sometimes a 2 minute break can make a world of difference. Come back to your desk refreshed with a better attitude to begin working again.

This quote can apply to your professional life and personal life. Every day when I wake up, I make a conscious effort to look positively on the new day. We all have the free will to make the right choices on how we handle the tasks and obstacles of our day. Here are the 4 essential ways to keep a positive attitude and achieve success!

1. Positive Attitude and Goals

In order to succeed, you need to set goals that are both short-term and long-term. Once these goals are in place, make a plan of action to achieve them. A positive attitude along with hard work and perseverance is how you WILL obtain your goals, but it's also important to remember that progress is made in small steps. Keeping positive in your mindset is the way to achieve these goals. Do not let the enormity of your goals hold you back. Every step you take, big or small, brings you closer to the end result. Working with a positive attitude will only benefit the process.

2. Health and Attitude

Stress can actually be reduced when you maintain a positive attitude. Instead of looking at a problem as hopeless, approach it as a personal challenge. A negative attitude often causes physical ailments as well, which can result in sick time out of the office and less productivity. Just like diseases, a positive attitude is contagious and infectious. A positive attitude can be the key to your health and longevity.

3. Positive Attitude Affects Customer Relationships

If you understand and believe in the product you are selling, your customers will feed off your positive attitude. Carrying a positive assertiveness into the sales process is very important when it comes to success. If we look at the client as the opposition and feel incompetent in our skill sets we will ultimately fail. When nurturing a relationship with a client, it is very important to listen to the needs of your customer and keep an upbeat approach. People intuitively respond to your attitude and mood. Being confident in your abilities and prioritizing the needs of the clients is a formula for success.

4. Team Work

Try to stay away from negative behaviors and people. Do not blame others for issues that occur. Help co-workers problem solve and never accuse or point fingers. A saying I learned in the military is that you are only as strong as your weakest link. Cooperation with one another, along with everyone understanding their individual role is crucial. A helpful attitude along with a willingness to help one achieve a goal makes a strong team. Positivity equals productivity and TEAM success!

Everyone is fond of making a New Year's Resolution around this time of year—even in business. We start each New Year with high hopes and big plans. But when you look back at the last year, you have to ask, “What did you really do to help make your organization's sales performance improve?” If it's little or nothing, well, unfortunately, you're not alone.

The other day, while reading CSO Insights' 16th annual report titled "Sales Performance Optimization: 2010 Key Trends Analysis," I got a great look into what's really going on inside sales organizations all across the country. Not surprisingly, many of them seem to be having trouble moving the sales needle as effectively as they need to and were facing some very daunting challenges.

It's become a sad cliché to say that sales teams are challenged to "deliver more with less" while still being expected to hit their ever-increasing annual goals. In the past year, despite many companies ranking “Improving Sales Performance” as a top priority, a growing number of companies under-delivered the key tools that would help improve sales performance. What struck me is that many companies seem to be using a very contradictory strategy for improving performance and, unfortunately, the net result is that the entire organization may be at risk.

Here are a few tidbits:

Selling cycles have gotten longer and require more calls to close deals – It's not a surprise to anyone that budgets are now being held much closer than ever these days. With spending on such a short leash, it's going to take more effort to get a buyer to make a decision.

Lead generation isn't keeping pace with sales – A hefty 67% of the companies reported that they cut or frozen lead-gen spending – never a good way to grow sales.

Sales training investments were curtailed – Here's the old "work with what you have" approach in action.

The most surprising and somewhat ironic point was the lack of investment these companies had made in their sales infrastructure over the past year. For example:

Needed Sales Knowledge Management improvements were under-delivered – Despite making "improving their SKM" as the #2 sales effectiveness priority, less than 1 in 10 firms delivered any type of tool. Many simply decided to simply move it out to a 'next year's initiative,' with the resulting effect clearly contradicting their intent.

Lack of new sales forecasting technology enhancements or implementations - Only 12% of the firms that promised new technologies for helping their sales managers optimize pipeline/forecast management and rep coaching actually delivered it. Again, it's a "work with what you have" approach.

So, is there any good news?

CSO Insight did have some positive suggestions for helping companies get more out if their sales efforts without massive financial outlays or complicated processes.

One area that is particularly interesting is their discussion around a Sales Relationship/Process Matrix. Simply put, to improve effectiveness companies need to take a truly objective look at the way they sell and how they manage their customer relationships. Then, they need to strategically change the way they sell to match the reality. On the surface, this may seem vague and sound like something that companies routinely use as a PowerPoint buzzword, but it's just the thing that will truly make a difference. With a clear understanding about the way yourcustomer needs to be approached, you not only enhance your sales process – you ultimately effect a significant change to your sales results.

Ok, so now what? Start by getting the most out information you already have, starting with your CRM system.

Most companies have some sort of customer relationship management system, whether it's an enterprise-level CRM system, boxed software such as ACT! or even just a basic spreadsheet they use to manage their sales data. Today's modern CRM systems are able to do much more than simply keep a record of your customers' titles, addresses, and recent contact details. They give you valuable reports with tremendous insight into your sales flow—without being overly complicated. CRM systems such as CampaignerCRM have gone even further with powerful, yet easy-to-use reporting and analysis tools that allow you to look at the entire sales process to better understand your customer's needs. You can now deliver truly accurate, fact-based sales forecasts, get objective management insight and more. Many modern CRM systems are easy to use with many professional features. They're web-based for easy, secure access, deployment and maintenance within any size organization. They give powerful results and are relatively inexpensive to employ.

Once you develop a 'sales checklist' that reflects your sales process you're on your way to maximizing your CRM system. You're now able to get the information you need to manage and fine tune your sales process based on actual experience. Plus, your CRM system can enhance the process by delivering the appropriate resources, such as whitepapers, product brochures, presentations and more at each stage to help each member of your sales team to consistently move their customers toward the close.

In the end, maximizing your CRM system will allow you to quickly improve your sales effectiveness. You'll actually be able to "do more with less" so that next year, your New Year's Resolutions can be a bit more pleasant.

I recently discovered a tool that many of you probably have been using for a while. I have long used Fiddler as my tool of choice whenever I wanted to see what was happening with requests from a web application. Recently, I moved over to use FireFox and with it, I downloaded Firebug and YSlow. I like YSlow and it is does a good job of presenting much of the same information that you can glean from Fiddler, albeit in a consolidated way. I still would find myself looking to Fiddler to look at timings and other tidbits of information regarding the requests. Then I discovered the Net option of Firebug.

I must say, I can’t stop using it. It opens up the operations of the browser in a way that Fiddler simply cannot approach. For those of you who haven’t used this tool yet, allow me to explain. First, it shows you the requests from the browser in chronological order. Each request is broken down and timed into six phases of operation: DNS Lookup, Connecting, Blocking, Sending, Waiting and Receiving.

DNS lookup is the amount of time the browser is taking to translate the human readable domain name into its Internet Protocol (IP) address. Typically, this is cached by the browser, but it is controlled by the Time To Live (TTL) setting on the DNS server that is serving this name. If this time is more than 100 milliseconds, you may be connected to a slow DNS server or your TTL may be too short.

Connecting time is the amount of time it takes to establish a session between the browser and the web server that is servicing the request. This too should be short. If it is not, it may mean that you have too many requests going to your web servers and some requests are waiting for connections.

Blocking occurs when there are too many requests going to the same server. Web browsers will limit the number of simultaneous connections to a single domain. Generally, this number can be as low as 2 or as high as 6 by default. Too many simultaneous requests will result in some of the requests will become blocked. As a developer, you should determine why there are so many requests. Are images, style sheets or javascript files not being properly cached? Are there too many AJAX calls? Can some requests be deferred until after the load event?

Sending is exactly what is sounds like. How long did it take for the request to be sent to the server.

Waiting should be the largest chunk of time in the request. This is the amount of time that the server is using to process the request. Once you have finished analyzing the front end of the application, this is the area where you will focus on to improve the application.

Finally, you have receiving which is almost as self explanatory as sending.

Another nice feature in Firebug is that the requests, with their start and stop time are all laid out in chronological order. You may be able to make a positive effect on performance by observing the order of the requests. One interesting point is the empty gap between the end of one request and the start of the other. This is the time that the browser is consuming the results of the request such as parsing HTML or loading the DOM. A significant gap between requests represents a complex or large response and could be fertile ground for additional performance improvements.